I had the honour of attending the recent federal/provincial/territorial (FPT) health meeting, held last week in Edmonton, Alberta.
Manitoba’s delegation helped lead the discussions with my fellow provincial and territorial health ministers about procuring basic and specialized medical equipment. Working out the logistics of joint medical-equipment purchases like MRI’s can mean significant savings if provinces join together to negotiate lower prices and purchase in bulk, much like how our provinces purchase pharmaceuticals. We have been buying them together nationally for years and it’s been saving billions of dollars.
Another topic of discussion was Manitoba’s fight against opioid use and the legalization of cannabis. I expressed Manitoba’s concerns that Ottawa has not done enough to promote the dangers of cannabis consumption for young people and research has shown the drug may be harmful to those under the age of 25, since the brain is still developing.
We need an early and aggressive advertising in terms of public safety and awareness so that young people and others recognize that there is a harm from the use of cannabis. Unfortunately, I don’t see that Ottawa has an aggressive plan for that public awareness, nor is there enough time for authorities to address the issue of driver impairment from cannabis. I am excited to announce that Manitoba will be taking over as the lead province for health care and will play host to Canada’s next Health Minister’s meetings in 2018.
These meetings have been quite successful as they continue to work at bringing down some of the costs within health care and getting a better value for money.
